I freely admit that as a life-long Democrat, I cast my vote for Joe Biden in the presidential race of 2020. I also admit that had I not been a lifelong Democrat, I still would have cast my vote for Joe Biden in 2020. Frankly, I would have voted for just about anyone not named Donald Trump. Trump repulsed me as a pre-presidential, self-aggrandizing media hog, but after winning election in 2016, he proceeded to absolutely terrify me for four long years.
To be clear, Joe Biden was not my first choice. He wasn’t even my second or third choice—but whoever I might have preferred, Joe Biden became the nominee of my party and I voted for him. The relief I felt when he won the election was immeasurable. The fact that The Former Guy immediately attempted to stage a violent coup to remain in power was unsurprising but incredibly traumatizing. So when Joe Biden was finally, finally sworn in on January 20th, 2021, I almost cried from sheer relief.
I am old, and have been blessed—or cursed—with a long political memory. I remembered clearly that Uncle Joe was always a fundamentally decent man who seemed to suffer from perennial foot-in-mouth disease. Since the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, there was no reason for me to expect that the gaffes would not continue, and in fact the gaffes have continued apace.
What I did not expect were the consequential unforced errors that have occurred over the course of the past two years. The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan revealed a stunning lack of judgement and resulted in horrible human suffering. Within 24 hours, post-occupation Afghanistan was indistinguishable from pre-occupation Afghanistan. Common sense would have suggested that all US allies and their families should have been evacuated to safety well in advance of the announced withdrawal of US forces, but common sense is uncommon, and the botched operation was catastrophic. Big Mistake No. 1.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s post-presidency was predictably no different from his actual presidency. His malfeasance continued without intermission, and it was soon discovered that not only had he left the White House with who-knows how many classified documents, but that they had been deliberately removed and concealed in storage rooms and offices at Mar-a-Lago. Trump refused their return to the National Archives despite a year’s worth of requests and subpoenas. Finally, the Justice Department had no choice but to execute a search of the premises. Thankfully, a Special Prosecutor was eventually appointed by Merrick Garland to investigate whether a sufficient number of laws had been broken to warrant a criminal indictment. This came as a relief to many, since Garland appears to be in a persistent vegetative state when it comes to acting on the obvious commission of offenses by Trump and his rogue’s gallery of amoral associates. At the time, Uncle Joe rightly observed that the theft, concealment, and deliberate withholding of classified materials was deeply irresponsible.
Except that it now appears that Joe Biden had classified documents from his vice-presidency illegally stored in an office in Washington, DC and in the garage of his home in Delaware. Big Mistake No. 2.
Following Big Mistake No. 2, instead of owning the error and providing an honest and transparent explanation for how such documents ended up in these locations, he said nothing. He said nothing for 2 months, and it appears he would have never said anything had he not been outed by the media. Big Mistake No. 3.
Big Mistake #3 has been compounded by President Foot-in-Mouth’s assertion that the documents at his home in Delaware were perfectly safe because they were locked in a garage with his Corvette. Since when does a Corvette confer an extraordinary level of security and protection? Even worse, a recently-surfaced photo of Hunter Biden (whose greasy financial dealings abroad during the Obama administration will now be endlessly and publicly examined by McCarthy and Company) showed him standing in that same garage next to the fabled Corvette. So much for security.
In the meantime, an additional tranche of classified documents has now been located inside Biden’s Delaware home. Moreover, the documents are not confined to those from his vice-presidency; apparently, a number of the documents date back to his time as a senator.
One is tempted to surmise that this is not the end of the matter, and there may well be further discoveries in the days to come. What’s next? Will someone find the nuclear codes in Jill Biden’s girdle?
Clearly, Donald Trump’s transgressions are of an entirely different magnitude. The removal of classified documents from the White House appears to have been entirely intentional, and there appears to have been a deliberate effort to obstruct the lawful return of those documents. Joe Biden seems to have immediately attempted to return his documents and cooperate with the investigative process. Nevertheless, he had classified documents stored here, there and everywhere for 6-plus years, whether knowingly or unknowingly. The very least one can say is that it was stupid and sloppy.
During the 2020 presidential election, I remarked to my friends that Biden’s presidency was only possible because he ran against one of the most horrible human beings on earth. He had bungled a number of previous runs for the presidency, losing his momentum early in those primaries. But Donald Trump’s sociopathy provided a clear and compelling contrast, and Biden, thank God, prevailed.
Uncle Joe’s a nice guy. He is folksy and empathic and plain-spoken but he, like Attorney General Garland, fails to inspire enthusiasm.  Now, it appears, he doesn’t even inspire trust. Whatever high ground he seemed to have gained by midway through his first term has now eroded as a direct result of Big Mistakes No. 2 and No. 3.
Big Mistake No. 4, whatever it will be, may well cost him a second term.
